Employability in the Knowledge Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Employability in the Knowledge Economy - Essay Example Besides being pervasive, its central features of manipulation, storage, and transmission of large amounts of data at low cost, has made the IT revolution to influence every element of the economy as well as business chain. From its significant impact on both goods and services to R&D, production, marketing, distribution, and customer management, the overall knowledge application of knowledge to all facets of economy has been greatly simplified; and with this the knowledge intensity of economic activities has amplified. Besides this, globalization has increased with global competition, removal of trade barriers, FDIs, easy transfers of technology and capital, and network oriented economic activities. The concept of knowledge economy does not merely revolve high technology or generation of new knowledge, in fact it centers on the exploitation or effective use of all type of knowledge for the creation of wealth (Dahlman, n.d.). The nature of knowledge economy has been explained in terms of the significant role of knowledge as a factor of production and how it impacts on learning, skills, and innovation in the business organization. With the help of information and communication technologies, knowledge is increasingly becoming systemized which is leading toward information diffusion. This in turn is stressing for the possession of knowledge-based skills by human resource. Learning is in focus for both people and business organizations. (Houghton & Sheehan, 1999) For the purpose of employability, business leaders constantly advise people to acquire the skills, knowledge, and capabilities that are required by employers in the increasingly knowledge-driven economy (CBI, 2001). Drucker (1993) suggests that production is no longer driven by natural resources, capital, or labor, but ‘innovation and productivity’ – the major applications of knowledge. Since technological

E-Health System Advantages and Disadvantages

E-Health System Advantages and Disadvantages Introduction: Information systems designed for specific objectives. Today, lots of information systems are designed to help the health care industry. One of the main systems is Health Information System, which has designed for collecting, storing, managing and providing available patient information important to the healthcare delivery system. One field of health information systems is hospital information system. This system records the patient related data and update the data and make it available for clinical staff for monitoring the patient and diagnosis and also to make treatment decisions by hospital professions. Designing process: Information technology has already changed the ways of services in hospitals, and become one of the important considerations in modern hospitals, but often bad designed IT solutions may have problems to communicate with the staff. The main objective of System Design is to make a technical solution that fulfills the functional demands for the system. There are several challenges to design a good IT system; organizations in any healthcare units can improve the implementation process by using the following five elements: Comprehensive Business Plan: Defines the reason for taking the responsibility for the project and the expected results. Demand administrative Commitment and Leadership: Achieving success needs brave leadership and a full commitment. When the go-forward decision is made, those who responsible for the care of the design process must stand behind the leadership. Set Realistic Expectations: keep away from searching for the extreme solution and trying to carry out all aspects of the system at once. The selection may focus on a sequence of expectations concerning software performance, with fulfilling the clinical goals within a reasonable budget. Secure Operational Ownership of the Project: the supplier has experience; customers have to define their own vision and demands. The timetable of process and method of use among customers could be different in an extreme manner. Lead the Implementation: The pilot site idea allows the supplier, clinical and IT staffs to study procedures, define future state workflows, and develop guidelines and procedures. The absence of any essential element may leads to physician disappointment and less adoption with the system. the system itself also must satisfy following demands: Make connection between care professions and patients and also their relatives. It must be useful to keep the patent data not only for diagnosis but also for prevention and maintaining health. Easy enough to use by clinical staff. IT must have interconnection between other health care systems in other hospitals and care centers. The system must be learnable enough and has no considerable errors in sending and receiving data. Evaluation: The evaluation begins during program development and can be divided into verià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ cation, validation, assessment of human factors and clinical assessment of clinical effect (Engelbrecht et al. 1995; Ohmann Belenky 1995; Ohmann et al. 1998; see also Van Bemmel Musen 1997)., Verification checks development of the system according to its specià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ cation and conà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ rms consistency, completeness and correctness of the system. Validation checks that the system performs the tasks for which it has been designed in the real working environment. Evaluation of human factors is the next phase of system evaluation. Even if a system has been verià ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ed and validated, it may be so clumsily designed that it cannot be used in real life, because using the system is either too inconvenient or consumes too much time.[3] In this part the main consideration must be how to evaluate the system continuously to make sure that the system is efficient enough as in care delivery or cost. It means that the system should not impact the patient data, because any change in patient data may cause bad diagnosis and incorrect care delivery, and the system must be in budget. One important factor in evaluation is to define correct evaluation goals. Without proper goals the evaluation has no sense. The main purposes of evaluation are user-based evaluation for design feedback, which checks whether users can carry out their jobs through the system or not and makes a feedback to system, and User-based evaluation for metrics . Technology Acceptance: Resistance of hospitals staff arises when they cannot adopt IT applications easily, so challenge in design is to integrate the ICT into their workflow. Staff members may be afraid to learn new technology, or they may be afraid that the system will eliminate their job, so they insist to keep working in traditional paper-base system. Moreover, physicians assign many reasons why they cant adopt ICT systems. Some mention about difficulty, or they are not well enough in typing. There are also interested in making eye contact with patients. Making connection between hospital staff and their colleagues who are currently using ICT systems, will illustrate that the system increase physician-patient relationship and also the system does not eliminate hospital staff jobs however it may cause changes in their workflow. Training criteria: In order to train the staff, system supplier must develop training materials, training plan and also lead the proper training program for staff, i.e. perform annual workshops to improve the computer and IT knowledge of staff continuously. Hospital training department can assist supplier in developing and performing the program and can ensure participation of all users in training sessions. The training department also should perform computerized training programs for both new arrived nurses and physicians to make them ready for the system that hospital is working with. By this process It is likely hospital will have a favorable response in convincing the staff. Advantages and disadvantages with Ehealth system: After implementation an Ehealth system some advantages and disadvantages may identified when comparing the system to paper-based documentation. Ehealth system advantages: reduces staff stress. makes an efficient and accessible patient record. Time saving and reducing indirect works, that leads to more direct care delivery. Causes keeping staff in their possession and attracting them. Ehealth system disadvantages: changes communication processes with staff. training of staff is quite time-consuming. Conclusion: In conclusion, a good Ehealth information system must concentrate on providing information and services to guarantee the best outcome for the patient care. There is a strong demand for employing personnel with health informatics skills to supervise this process and to keep the management part of the hospital in a high standard level because these personnel will play an important role in the system design, system implementation and evaluation of the system. Discussion: References: [1]Development and Evaluation of Information Systems for Shared Homecare(ISABELLA SCANDURRA) [2]acceptance [3]-full text-evaluation [7] J. K. H. Tan, Health Management information Systems; Methods and practical Applications. 2001.

Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe Essay examples -- essays

Love is one of the most powerful forces in the world, and one of the most difficult to describe. It is one of those emotions that words do not seem to justify a person may feel it, but may not be able to explain it. However, that does not mean that people do not know that love is out there. Many people believe that everyone has one true love somewhere in the world, and spend their lives searching for that person. Love is not difficult to find though. It exists in many forms, including love between family members, friends, different races, and even the love for oneself, both in the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Frannie Flagg and in one's own life.The first and most basic form of love is found in the family. From the time a child is born, in usual circumstances, that child is loved unconditionally. A person grows up with their family, and is able to express who they really are. Because of this, ties within the family are usually quite strong. Take for example the relationship between Idgie and Buddy: Idgie (Imogene), a dare-devilish tomboy, and her older brother Buddy are quite close until Buddy's untimely death. Idgie takes his passing with difficulty: "You never saw anybody hurt so much. I thought she would die right along with him" (Flagg, p.37). Another example of the love felt within a family is Stump (Buddy Jr.), who is Ruth's son, Ruth herself, and Idgie. Stump's father is murdered, and grows up with Ruth and Idgie as his parents. Ruth and Idgie do everything possible to try and keep Stump happy. In fact, when Stump is feeling self-conscious about being with a female in the sexual sense, it is Idgie who arranges for him to have intercourse with a friend of hers: "'It's just that I'm scared, Aunt Idgie. I'm just plain scared'" (Flagg, p.266). "The door of the cabin opened, and a freshly bathed, powdered, and perfumed woman with rust-colored hair and apple-green eyes said, 'Come on in, sugar,' as Idgie drove away" (Flagg, p.267). Also, another example of family love is how hard Jasper Peavey works, and how he scrapes to white people to get enough money to support his family: "The burial policy for his family was paid off, he had sent all four of his children through college, and not one of them would ever have to live off tips. That was the one thought that had kept him going all the hard,... ...wful despair had started when she finally began to realize that nothing was ever going to change... She began to feel as if she were at the bottom of a well, screaming, no one to hear" (Flagg, p.63). As Evelyn becomes friends with Ninny, she learns from her that it is pointless to feel so hopeless and despondent. After Evelyn manages to rid herself of her alter-ego, Towanda the Avenger, she begins to understand and feel good about herself. She also attends a weight-loss spa where she "found her group, the group she had been looking for all her life" (Flagg, p.374). By the end of the novel, Evelyn is a happy, well-adjusted middle-aged woman who is finally able to love herself.Love can be uncovered almost anywhere. In the novel by Frannie Flagg, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, love is a powerful force that is found in many forms: love between family members, love between friends, love between races, and the love that a person has for themselves. This love is important because without it there would be an extensive amount of fighting between people, and a greater lack of respect between citizens. To maintain the sanity of the world, there must be love.

Cold War and Containment Essay

Dated from 1947-1991 the Cold War was an intense economic, political, ideological, and military tension between the powers of the Western world, led by the United States against the powers of the Eastern world led by the Soviet Union. Because of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) these two countries never came head to head like previous wars, however they would fight each other in proxy wars. This sustained a high level of hostility throughout the war and one point if not the highest point of the conflict was the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons in Cuba which would be only 90 miles from the US; this would have been devastating to the United States with only Seattle outside the blast radius. The two Ideologies that were at conflict during the cold war were the United States Capitalism vs. the Soviet Union Communism. United States believed in a system where there is more than one political party, limited government interference in people’s lives and also the factors of production and freedom of speech. On the other hand the Soviet Union had the complete opposite with only one political party, Classless society, government controlled most aspects of people’s lives and all factors of production and there was no freedom of speech. Containment was strategies used by the United States to counter the spread of Communism. It was used to counter a series of moves by the Soviet Union after it tries to enlarge its communist influence in Europe and Asia. One way the United States implemented this strategy of containment was the Marshal Plan. Named after the then secretary of state George Marshal was a program of monetary support to help in the rebuilding of the European economy. The plan was in operation for four years from 1948 with an approximate spending of $13 billion. Another way they implemented the containment was the Truman Doctrine. This was put forward by the then US President Harry Truman. The doctrine, which had both economic and military elements, pledged support for countries attempting to hold back Soviet-style revolutionary Communism.

Ethical Issues Surrounding Gay Marriage Essay

When I think of Ethical issues in the world today, Gay Marriage seems to hits me the hardest. Now Maybe it is the fact that I am bisexual myself or that I have a homosexual uncle who has been married for 2 years. Either way, I am a strong supporter of the entire marriage institution, especially gay marriage. In this paper I will first indentify the ethical issue of gay marriage and specifically explore the ethical problems gay marriage presents including their pros and cons. I will then explain the classical theory of and determine how it would resolve the problems at hand. Next I will continue by contrasting the theoretical solution with perspective of towards gay marriage. Lastly, I will go over which view is the closest to my own personal outlook of gay marriage. Let’s begin with the ethical issue at hand, Gay Marriage. The right for homosexual couples to become married is frowned upon in most of the world. In fact, Gay Marriage is and has been one of the greatest ethical issues in the United States since Slavery and Women Rights. In my own personal opinion, I believe Same-sex Marriage should not be an ethical issue. What is unethical, is how A person may lie, cheat, or fornicate, and still experience the grace of God; but if they are in a gay relationship they are somehow socially damned. I believe by denying any one person their constitution rights to equality is wrong. If a person is homosexual and they choose to marry their significant other, they have the civil right to do so under the constitution as a U. S. citizen. By denying any one person the right to marry whomever they choose, that is a violation of said persons civil rights, because marriage holds legal civil status. We all are Americans who have the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. How can anyone deny Americans this right primarily because of their sexual orientation? People pride themselves on being law abiding citizens, but choose to discriminate against homosexual person’s lifestyle and love interest based on the so called facts written many years ago in a â€Å"religious† book. The Bible is not the law! That is one thing that most religious groups have not yet grasped. No matter what any one person’s religious beliefs are, there is no law, power, or authority that gives them the right to push their religious beliefs onto another’s life. I do not nor have I ever thought religion should ever be the deciding factor in the worlds verdict about gay marriage? Today the growing acceptance of homosexuality is a direct threat to the domination of traditional Christian norms. According to the Christian Bible and many other religions texts, there is the believe that marriage is meant solely between a man and women, anything else is considered a act of sin. However, due to the bible stating that one should not pass judgment on another, many churches are more recently accepting same-sex couples. Personally speaking, many religious â€Å"church goers† use the bible as a means to attack others. They walk around presenting this holier than thou appearance, but neglect to follow all of the teachings their bible possesses. It is funny how those same religious groups that try to argue that gay marriage is a sin are the same people that are protesting to band their children’s public schools of religious content and practices. The separation of Church and State has been put into place in many U. S. cities. Knowing this, I do not understand how any government is to follow the rules on the separation of church and state, but then be given the right to place laws against gay marriage solely based of the Bibles written word. Homosexuals do not spend time going around telling heterosexual people that they are not allowed to engage in intercourse until marriage, while that’s in the bible. The Bible vs. The Constitution seems to play the biggest role in the argument against gay marriage. People have stated, â€Å"the constitution should be changed, its outdated. † However, their entire argument is incorporating the first amendment right of freedom of speech. before the constitution was written, going against the government was unlawful. No one was allowed to speak their minds. I know that even in the bible when one went against what god said they were punished or put to death. Heterosexuals don’t like certain rights in the constitution that go against their own personal beliefs, but will turn and cater to others, like freedom of speech. Without some of those rights it would be unlawful for me to write this paper. Plus, I would have been murdered some time ago for being a white and black, bisexual man. what most fail to realize is that yes the bible thought of gays as a sin but it also listed a number of other acts as sin. If our lives were truly run solely by the Bible’s scriptures, Gay marriage would be the last of the heterosexuals problems. Especially when most of the worlds murders are committed by heterosexuals. I personally do not like to base my arguments off a source unless I plan to use the entire source as foundation. I cannot say the constitution is wrong solely off on right I do not agree with. But turn around and accept the others that cater to my better living. That would label me as a hypocrite. Just like how many people use their religious beliefs to fight gay rights, but fail to follow other aspects of the bibles teachings. I am just human, who am I to judge anyone. This is just one of the many reasons why I can argue that many of the firm believers against gay marriage are set in hypocritical views. People against gay marriage claim that marriage is dedicated to starting a family. They argue that with marriage you have children and build a happy home. However, for many people, marriage is more about love and mutual trust than about starting a family, and so they would say that gay marriage is not an issue. So for those who say it’s only to start a family, I would call this a delusional fantasy. For one there are more broken homes in the world now than anything. Now yes, Homosexual couples cannot physically reproduce on their own. However, this does not give reasonability to deny the couple the right to marry. There are heterosexual couples that cannot physically have children of their own as well. There are many women out in the world that cannot bear children due to a numerous amount of health issues. My own aunt Kelly was told that she can never have children of her own. Her body just doesn’t have the strength and or properly functioning organs to create life. The same goes for many men. I have a neighbor that recently told me that he has a condition that denies him the ability to produce reproductive sperm. As he likes to say, â€Å"he is shooting blanks. † Knowing this I didn’t see any government laws stopping them from getting married. My aunt was told about her inabilities to birth, over 20 years ago. Today she has been married twice. May I remind you that she is a heterosexual woman that cannot have children of her own and is still legally allowed to marry. In today’s world, there are many alternative options for couples to start a family. The most popular way is adoption. Also, there is much more controversy no-a-days regarding adoption . It has become apparent that more and more Homosexual couples are going outside of the United States to adopt children. They are forced to go outside of the United states due to the fact that they are not legally allowed to adopt here in the states. Lesbian and gay-parented families may be more likely than others to include members from more than one ethnic group . So because the government wants to discriminate against the homosexual lifestyles, there are more and more American children left without a home. No one that can legally adopt them is stepping up for the responsibility. It is true that you truly respect something more that you have to fight for. My grandmother used to tell me this since I was really young. There are so many heterosexuals out there that are â€Å"horrible parents† or that take the gift of parenting for granted. They do drugs and make extreme decisions that break up their families or make the decision to rid themselves of the responsibility of parenting all together. I speak from person experience. As a young boy at the age of 5, my mother gave me and my 5 younger siblings up to child protective services. At the time she chose her friends and her drug abuse over her children and family. She did not care whether we would be okay or not, she dropped me off with only 1 shoe. All my mother cared about was being able to get high without the guilt of us seeing her do it. I ended up back in the family, but my siblings were all separated some are still in the system. Now I personally have never seen a homosexual couple that are bad parents. It is usually the exact opposite. Homosexual couples have to fight in order to build their families so they try not to do anything to mess that chance up. I have also never met a homosexual couple that didn’t want children. Along with starting families, those against gay marriage also argue that children brought up in a same-sex marriage household are taught morals and beliefs. Some say that this type of household is poisonous to the child, that it teaches them to go against â€Å"our creator†. what if their families do not share in the same religious beliefs as others. Contrary to what most assume, there are many people that do not believe in God. Just like there are many cultures that believe in gay rights. So no one can make the basis of their argument on â€Å"the creator† when not everyone believes in him. Also, they like to say that by growing up in a gay household, the child is going to turn gay. the association between religious attendance and attitudes toward gay marriage is mediated by a belief that sexual orientation is a choice rather than innate & . This is so ridiculous in so many ways. For one being gay is not a disease, you can’t just catch it. Being gay is not something you inhabit like a accent. People are not made gay they are born gay; its just a matter of when they decide to accept it. I was raised in a house with a male and female parenting role, and I still knew I was different. I am a bisexual male and so are many of my friends. These friends of mine were raised in all types of different households, but known were raised in same-sex households. At the same time I have 3 friends that were adopted and raised by two homosexual men and not a single one of them are gay. They are all in heterosexual relationships and never once thought of being with the same-sex. These are a few examples of discrimination against gay marriage. Another major problem with gay marriage that people are beginning to argue is the affect of heterosexual couples. Many people argue that the world will change for heterosexual couples if same-sex marriages were allowed. Income taxes is one on the many reasons they have behind this outrages claim. Many people are in the belief that income taxes will be increased. Also, the IRS gives certain credits and benefits to those individuals that have children and other dependants. Heterosexuals believe that the government will be forced to apply the same financial benefits and credits on income taxes towards homosexual couples which they believe will lower everyone’s benefits. Along with their income taxes, they’re under the assumption that social security taxes will increased and the benefits decrease if the government has to provide accommodation for these same-sex married couples. One of the more common ignorant claims is regarding heath care. People are arguing that their medical insurance premiums will rise based on these stereotypical images of homosexual lifestyles. They have always believed that homosexuals get diseases and illnesses like Aids or HIV easier than heterosexuals. Based on this belief they think that there will be a higher health care needs associated to the treatment of these more at risk diseases. These potential changes in circumstances do not hold enough credibility to deny a person the right to join the institution of marriage. It is unethical to claim the power to control if someone can get married. Most of the world believes Gay marriage is unethical. I have to disagree with that assumption. This is another way that heterosexuals choose to be hypocrites. Using Arranged marriage as an example, I prove my case. Mostly everyone in the world, whether homosexual or heterosexual, can agree that arranged marriage is unethical. Many people believe that all want arranged marriage is wrong because you should have the right to choose whom you marry. So how is that any different than what homosexuals want. Homosexuals are also being denied the chance to marry who they choose. Again being hypocritical! People believe Marriage is about love and commitment. Both homosexuals and those forced into arranged marriages are victims. Neither gets to decide what they want to do, how to live, who to love. The only difference between the two is that at least arranged marriage is marriage. The couple that is actually in love cannot be married. When two people fall in love, they all want the same thing. They dream of this life together, married, with a family, and more. Why should homosexuals be revoked that reality. It should not matter if you are gay or straight, you should be able to get married if you want. On another note I also, do not believe that anyone should have to travel away from home to legally get married. Some people have to travel multiple states away, because none of the states near them allow same-sex marriage. The day that all 50 states come to the same decision accepting gay marriage will not come anytime soon, but I do hope I am still alive to see a good size amount of them jump the bandwagon. This is one way that would begin to solve the issue. When it comes to gay marriage, I believe the classical theory of Utilitarianism would help solve many of the problems. Utilitarianism is a consequential theory. It is the view that the morally right action is the action that produces the most good . The Utilitarian view seeks to maximize the overall good in a situation. In other words, one should always act in a way that produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people. It is proven that there are fewer people against same-sex marriage, than for it. So the theory of Utilitarianism is the best resolution to the issue the ethical problems of gay marriage. If the government acted with utilitarian views, then we would have less anger, debate, spend less money on a unnecessary battle. Along with this view one would also need a clear perspective of the issue. A clear perspective of the issue of same-sex marriage would be relativism. Relativism is the idea that one’s beliefs and values are understood in terms of one’s society, culture, or even one’s own individual values . It is the philosophical concept that all points of view are equally valid, and that all truth is relative to the individual . Both sides that are involved realize that neither side will ever agree nor neither side is right or wrong. Each Society, culture or religious group is formed by its own ethical values and beliefs, with how they see things to be right and wrong. I believe that when it comes to gay marriage everyone is going to have to agree to disagree. Religion is the top reason to why people are against same-sex marriage. What church goers fail to realize is that they are forcing their religious beliefs onto not only the homosexuals but to all. Everyone has their own views and when Homosexuals try to voice theirs, they are attacked, (metaphorically). The only way that this problem is ever going to get anywhere is if both sides try to understand that just because everyone doesn’t share your same views and beliefs, that doesn’t make them wrong. The cannot ignorantly believe that everyone automatically shares their beliefs. Homosexuals are already at this point, they are the hypocrites in this situation. All they want is equality, the same equality that everyone else has been fighting for all these years. In conclusion, I have indentified the ethical issue of gay marriage and explored the ethical problems gay marriage presents including the pros and cons. I then explained how the classical theory of Utilitarianism would resolve those problems. I continued by contrasting the theoretical solution with perspective of relativism towards gay marriage. Lastly, I went over which view is the closest to my own personal outlook of gay marriage. I do not believe that there should even be such a thing as â€Å"gay marriage†. The title itself is discriminatory. Gay people do not go around referring to a heterosexual couple’s marriage as straight marriage. So why should a society filled with diverse lifestyles be allowed to refer to homosexual marriages as â€Å"gay marriage†. Marriage is marriage, either way. It should not be labeled as any other. Whether, heterosexual or Homosexual, it’s the same institution and should hold the same rights. At the end of the day I am a firm believer that the discrimination against gay marriage should be outlawed. Gay people do value the institution of marriage, therefore their relationship and want to marry is ethical in my eyes. References Driver, J. (2009, June 21). The History of Utilitarianism. Retrieved from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato. stanford. edu/archives/sum2009/entries/utilitarianism-history/ Haider-Markel, D. P. (2008). Beliefs about the origins of homosexuality and support for gay rights. Public Opinion Quarterly, 72, pp. 291–310. doi:10. 1093/poq/nfn015 Mosser, K. (2010). Introduction to Ethics and Social Responsibility. San Diego: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Patterson, C. J. (2013). Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents: Psychology, Law, and Policy. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 1(S), 27–34. Rosenfeld, M. J. (2007). The age of independence: Interracial Unions, Same-sex Unions, and the Changing American Family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Swoyer, C. (2010, December 21). Relativism. Retrieved from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/relativism/ Todd, N. R. , & Ong, K. S. (2012). Political and Theological Orientation as Moderators for the Association Between Religious Attendance and Attitudes Toward Gay Marriage for White Christians. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 4(1), 56–70.